Search Documents

EFF sued the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act in October 2011 for answers about “secret interpretations” of a controversial section of the law. In June 2013, a leaked FISA court order publicly revealed that “secret interpretation”: the government was using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect the phone records of virtually every person in the United States.

EFF filed suit against the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), receiving thousands of pages about the certifications and authorizations the agency has issued for the operation of unmanned aircrafts, also known as drones. The Federal Aviation Authority, part of the DOT, is the sole entity within the federal government responsible for authorizing domestic drone flights, providing a certification or authorization for any drone flying over 400 feet. Prior to our suit, there was no information available to the public about who specifically had obtained these authorizations or for what purposes. Through our lawsuit, we received specific and detailed information on the drone licensing process that was never before released. This prompted significant public awareness and discussion about the privacy and surveillance issues with drones. EFF partnered with MuckRock, an open government organization that helps individuals send requests for public records, to crowd-source FOIA requests to local law enforcement agencies about their use of unmanned aircrafts.

EFF filed suit against three agencies of the Department of Justice (DOJ) demanding records about problems or limitations that hamper electronic surveillance and potentially justify or undermine the Administration's new calls for expanded surveillance powers.

EFF filed suit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a half-dozen other federal agencies involved in intelligence gathering, demanding the immediate release of reports about potential misconduct. These agencies are required to submit periodic reports of "any intelligence activities of their organizations that they have reason to believe may be unlawful or contrary to Executive order or Presidential directive" to the Intelligence Oversight Board. The board, consisting of private citizens with security clearances, is tasked with reviewing those reports, summarizing them, and forwarding to the president those that it believes describe violations of the law. Through EFF's lawsuit, we obtained and published publicly thousands of pages of documents from these misconduct reports. Contrary to official promises about embracing transparency, our suit unveiled not only extensive, illegal misuse of intelligence gathering and surveillance powers, but also a practice of routinely covering up such abuses.